High school students at Lakeville North High School and Minneapolis Public Schools are making strides on rat rod go-karts that they are constructing as part of build-off launched last year by Northern Tool + Equipment.
WCCO Radio's Mark Freie first covered the story in June 2023 about the project that gives students a chance to use new, cutting-edge 740cc NorthStar EFI engines through the Tools for the Trades program.
"We've made a lot of progress on our build," said Zach Humphrey, an automotive instructor at Minneapolis Public Schools. "We got the chassis and frame fabricated, most of the elements of our suspension in place, and we've got a pretty good start on our body and drivetrain."
27 students are working on the rat rod project primarily in Minneapolis Public Schools' automotive shops located at Roosevelt High School. All Minneapolis students, regardless of what high school they attend, can take a Career & Technical Education class with transportation provided to whichever school the class is held.
"This is our first year doing this style with transportation and shuttles from school to school," Humprey said. "So it's kind of hard to gage the success of it just yet, but we're starting to see more students come over from different high schools."
As part of the project, students are being mentored by Chopper’s Inc. founder Billy Lane and NASCAR legend Richard Petty.
Lane, along with members of Petty's Garage, have been meeting with students in-person and virtually.
"They both have so much experience in some form of fabrication and motorsports," said instructor Luther Kominski. "We have 27 kids in the class and different teams working on different aspects of the kart. When we meet with these mentors, they see it from 3,000 feet and hone-in on things."
And over the past several months, students have become more comfortable with working in the shop, doing things such as cutting, grinding, fabricating, welding, and measuring.
"We actually just went through a semester change where we kept a core group of students that have been with us for the whole build," Kominski said. "We also just got a group of new students, fresh eyes, and ideas into the room. We've seen a lot of growth not only in the technical skills, but in the leadership side."
The rat rod go-karts will make their debut during the Back to the '50s Weekend in June at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds.
Humprhey says there's still plenty of work to do until then, but there are more opportunities for students, and instructors, to learn.
"One thing I've taken away is how to work as a very large group. We have anywhere between 27 to 35 different ideas, hands, and bodies working on this project. Everybody has a different vision, way of planning out things, and though process. To come together and collaborate with all of that information is a huge area of growth for me personally and for the students I think as well."
